Deuteronomy 6:1-9
1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
The goal was always to teach them to observe. Jesus said the same. Go make disciples of the nations, teaching them to obey (Matt 28.20). That’s not only the challenge of discipling and being discipled, but the essential distinction of God’s people—not that they simply know the commands, but that they “keep all his decrees,” and are “careful to obey” it. This is what defines those who “fear the Lord,” or “Love the Lord” (which, in the OT seems to be interchangeable as proper attitudes toward God.) Jesus said the same, too: John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
For non-feeler guys like me, the frequent exhortation to love God can be baffling, and sometimes downright frustrating, because in modern Christian usage “love the Lord,” seems to mean that we are supposed to have sweet, affectionate feelings about him. This kind of sentimental understanding of love is really quite foreign to the sensibilities of the Bible. Actually, this kind of understanding of the word love does not even work in marriage, or friendships. Here, as elsewhere in the Bible, loving God, fearing God, reverencing him, honoring his name, and obeying his commands, being careful to keep and carry out his stated will, these are all so intimately connected that it’s not helpful to try to separate them out It’s unfortunate that so many otherwise obedient (more of less) believers feel anxious that they cannot seem to conjure up feelings of sweet affection toward God because that’s what loving God is supposed by them (and many others) to mean.
Now some qualifiers: 1) There are those who DO have a great deal of emotional affection toward God, and I am not questioning the legitimacy of that, nor calling it mere sentimentality. Great saints and contemplatives had nearly ecstatic sense of mystic communion with God. 2) You can “obey,” without the love. That’s true. But you can also “love”–i.e., weep at touching songs about Jesus–but not obey. Whose obedience is false; whose love is false? It’s complicated, of course, because the link between our head, heart and hands seem all broken and cross-wired.
But, vss. 6-9, gives us way forward. It all has to do with God’s word. His words are to be on our hearts (again, “heart,” was not automatically associated with emotions in OT understanding. It was more the seat of the will and convictions). The people of God were to make the word of God their absolute central preoccupation. They were to talk about them sitting at home, walking along the road … it was the last thing they were to think about at night, and the first thing they thought about when they got up. They were to tie them on their hands (to remind themselves) and foreheads (to remind everyone they met that day, I guess). They were to write them on the doorframes of their homes, in their cubicles, dashboards of their cars … These are some concrete, specific tips for feelers and non-feelers alike when it comes to loving the Lord our God with all our hearts. Do the work required, arrange your life such that, create habits and rituals so that … you can get the word in your head!
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Thank you for this post, Pastor Ed! I was very thankful for this DT and for all the ways in which I can arrange my life to love the Lord with all my heart.
Thank you Pastor Ed for this blog post! It’s a good reminder for me, especially at the start of this year of just how important God’s Word is. It’s important to keep it in my heart so that I won’t forget and so that I can remind myself even when my emotions are telling me otherwise. Thank you again!